The invention relates to a sound proofing and vibration dampening elastic connecting element for floating suspension of the floor-deck of a load-bearing floor of road or railway vehicles used for passenger transport, said element having an elastic body and contact surfaces for the vehicle floor and floor-deck.
Passenger space in railway vehicles has to be thermally and accoustically insulated in order to provide increased comfort for those travelling in the vehicle. Particularly important in that respect is the insulation of the floor-deck from the load-bearing structural floor, as the greatest noise comes from the wheel suspension below the structural floor. Furthermore, the floor-deck should exhibit some elasticity.
A known means of providing floating suspension for the floor-deck in passenger vehicles is to provide rubber elements between the floor-deck and the vehicle floor. Monolithic rubber blocks, however, suffer the disadvantage that a hardening of the rubber blocks that arises with increasing load due to the effect of compression, reduces the sound-proofing and vibration dampening properties.
In awareness of this state-of-the-art, it is the object of the present invention to provide a joining element that, also under elevated load conditions, exhibits good behavior with respect to sound-proofing and vibration dampening.